#!/usr/bin/perl -w my $file_name = "test.txt"; open(INF,'./$file_name') || die "file could not open\n"; open(INFN,'>./${file_name}.new') || die "$!: ${file_name}.new\n"; my @line; while(@line = ) { if ( $line =~ /test/) { print "found at $.: $line $line = "\# $line"; } print INFN $line; } close(INF); close INFN;